Return to the Clan

The first light of dawn, like a gentle painter, used strokes of gold to gradually dispel the last traces of gloom hanging over the Northwest Continent, along with that faint yet bone-deep bloody scent.

Before Heavenly Snake Mansion's ruined mountain gate, after an entire sleepless night of emergency measures, the place was still a scene of devastation, its broken walls and crumbling ruins speaking of yesterday's brutal battle. Yet a new order, like newly sprouted vines, had quietly begun to take root amid the ruins.

The wounded had been settled as properly as possible, and the low groans within the temporary infirmaries, thick with Medicinal Fragrance, had gradually weakened.

The bodies of the fallen were identified one by one and solemnly laid to rest. The surviving disciples tearfully arranged their appearances, while grief and solemnity filled the air.

Those traitors and invaders who had surrendered or been captured had their cultivation crippled and were gathered under guard, watched closely by loyal disciples. The cleanup was also proceeding in an orderly fashion. Broken bricks and shattered tiles were cleared away, charred beams were hauled off, making room for reconstruction.

Qing Lin stood alone atop a relatively intact section of broken wall, the morning breeze stirring her slightly disheveled hair.

Her unique jade-green eyes, like the finest emeralds, gazed deeply at the sect grounds below, a place that carried too many complicated memories and emotions for her.

There was the confusion and unease she had felt upon first entering the sect, the hardship and sweat of cultivation, the sect's nurturing brought about by her Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, the trust placed in her during times of crisis, and, after she had turned the tide and treated her fellow disciples yesterday, the genuine gratitude and reverence contained in the gazes directed at